Cologne 2013: Italian designer Luca Nichetto installed his idea of the house of the future at trade fair imm cologne last week (+ slideshow).

Luca Nichetto took inspiration from modernist architecture in California, the art of the Japanese masters and the buildings of Carlo Scarpa to create an eco-friendly environment that blurs the divisions between inside and outside.

The house was made up of semi-enclosed walls and large windows, with plants along the shelves and in vases on the floor.

Nichetto placed different plants in each area to serve a particular purpose, with thyme and rosemary in the kitchen, varieties of cabbage in the vegetable garden and greenery in the bathroom to keep the air fresh.

Tall evergreen plants were placed around the house to create green walls that separated each area without completely blocking views.

Various products designed by Nichetto were displayed around the house, with recent designs including the Hai lounge chair for One Nordic Furniture Company and a leather version of the La Mise sofa for Cassina.

Das Haus is an annual installation at the fair, inviting designers to create their vision of an ideal home.

Last year London design duo Doshi Levien was invited to build their own vision of a dream home at imm cologne,

Other projects by Nichetto we've featured on Dezeen include a table lamp inspired by Darth Vader and a set of grooved brass bowls – see all designs by Luca Nichetto.

A DIY curtain kit and a chair made from wooden broom handles were among the products launched in Cologne last week – see all product news from imm cologne.

Photographs are by Constantin Meyer and Koelnmesse.

Here's some more information from the designer:

imm cologne 2013
Luca Nichetto presentsDas Haus —Interiors on Stage

At the next edition of imm cologne, which will take place from 14th to 20th of January 2013, Luca Nichetto will be the first Italian designer to carry out the project Das Haus –Interiors on Stage, where the designer will present his vision of house the future. For this project, Nichetto drew his inspiration from modernist architecture in California, as well as from the works of Japanese masters and the buildings of Carlo Scarpa. In all these works we can see nature being constantly side by side with architecture. Pursuing his interest in sustainable design, Nichetto compares his "Das Haus" with a small planet, where the living room becomes as important as the Amazon rainforest is for the Earth.

That is precisely where Nichetto starts designing his "Das Haus" from – a house that is almost entirely made up of semi-enclosed walls and large windows, so as to emphasize the concept of merging the "inside" with the "outside". That is nature entering the home. The living room, located in the centre of the house, is the "green heart" of "Das Haus".

All the other rooms are connected with this "heart" that turns the house into a totally eco-friendly environment. Here the entire living area is surrounded by the nature, which marks off the space by becoming the wall. A selection of plants, designed according to the characteristics that best suit each environment, was made to fill the various rooms with its invigorating presence.

Imm cologne, is going to take place in January and this has led to some restrictions on the choice of seasonal plants. Nevertheless, there is going to be a large amount of exotic evergreen potted plants. Thanks to their photosynthetic activity, both decorative and non-decorative plants help to clear the air, especially (but not only) in areas such as the bathroom, where cleaning products usually leave an unpleasant residue.

The vegetable garden was planted with different varieties of cabbage, the cultivation that best suits the harsh winter weather in Europe. For the aromatic plants garden in the kitchen, the choice fell on some varieties of thyme and rosemary. The tall plants placed in strategic locations within the house are evergreen varieties, too. Their function is to create green "walls" that do separate the environments, without blocking the view.

A thorough research was also in the color selection that was carefully designed to create a welcoming environment where people visiting Das Haus 2013 can feel at ease, with no rush and pleasantly out of time. The warm and delicate colors of the walls result from the consideration given to the artistic representations of Venice by Canaletto, which perfectly blend with the natural materials of the floors: natural oak, porcelain stoneware and hand-made colored concrete obtained with natural colors.

Our choice was to highlight the two main volumes, namely two parallelepipeds that intersect, thus determining the core of the house – the living room – with two different colours for both the exterior and the interior, so as to highlight the interpenetration effect of the two directrices. The interior colours are in turn chosen according to the room – in the library, for example, neutral and warm tones prevail whereas in the relaxation area the choice fell on pop colours and the kitchen is neutral, with the white combined with natural wood and steel in order to create movement and keep a general visual consistency at the same time. Colours were selected and matched on the basis of the NCS – Natural Colour System®©.

Various products designed by Luca Nichetto in the course of his career will be displayed in this architectural and natural context. These products were designed for: Bosa, Carlo Moretti, Casamania, Cassina, David Design, De Padova, Discipline, Established & Sons, Fornasarig, Foscarini, Fratelli Guzzini, Gallery Pascale, Gallotti & Radice, Globo, Italesse, Kristalia, La Chance, MGLab, Moroso, Nodus, Offecct, Ogeborg, One Nordic Furniture Company, Petite Friture, Plust, Prosciutteria King‘s, Refin, Salviati, Skitsch, Skultuna, Tacchini, Tobeus, and Venini. Products designed by friends and colleagues, as well as iconic objects designed by the masters of design, will be displayed, too.

Inside the house, ten new products created by the designer for "Das Haus – Interiors on Stage 2013" will also be presented. These products are the DHP pots for Bosa, the Toshi cabinets for Casamania, the new leather version of La Mise sofa for Cassina, the Railway Indoor table for De Padova, the family of Flamingo tables for MGLab, the two rugs, Regata Storica and Morgane for Nodus, the table clock and the bookends of the Swell collection for Petite Friture, and the Hai lounge chair for One Nordic Furniture Company.